Pensioner chopped partner's head off and flushed it down toilet because she was 'no longer a good housewife'

A pensioner chopped his partner's head off and flushed it down the toilet because she was “not the housewife she used to be” and was going out with friends too often, a court heard.

Dempsey Nibbs, 69, ​​decapitated Judith Nibbs, 60, with a kitchen knife at their flat in Hoxton, Hackney, then broke her skull into pieces using a mallet and a metal bar, the Old Bailey was told.

A post mortem revealed that Ms Nibbs may have still been alive, though unconscious, when her ​​partner of 30 years severed her head​.

Prosecutor Crispin Aylett, QC, said: “Quite why the defendant decapitated Judith and then disposed of her head is not entirely clear but it may well be that he did it out of pure hatred at the sight of his wife's face.”

Forensic officers at the flat in Hoxton, Hackney.Credit:
LNP

He warned jurors to "brace themselves" as he outlined the gruesome case which he said was “as terrible as it is tragic”.

Mr Aylett said that by early 2014, the couple's relationship had soured. While their two children were growing up, Ms Nibbs had stayed at home to look after them.

But in 2007 their daughter Lauren, who suffers from autism, went to live in a care home in Hastings and Ms Nidds got a job working for meals on wheels at Hackney council.

She was described by her colleagues as "always happy and smiley" "a loud, happy, joyful person" and "always bubbly, very friendly and open-minded".

Mr Aylett said: "Nonetheless, after Judith started working, the nature of the relationship between Judith and Dempsey began to change."

Nibbs, a retired crane driver, felt that his partner had changed after getting a job. He complained to his son Kirk, 30, that “she was not 'the housewife' that she had used to be, that she had become more liberal in her outlook and she had begun going out with her friends from work", Mr Crispin told the court.

By early 2014, Nibbs had moved into the spare room and an “undercurrent of violence emerged” as the relationship fell apart, the court heard.

Ms Nibbs confided in her sister that her partner had threatened to kill her and grabbed her by the throat, jurors heard.

The Old BaileyCredit:
PA

Nibbs grew suspicious that his partner had become romantically involved with other men, and during an argument shortly before she was murdered, she taunted him saying: “I have had sex eight times.”

Mr ​Aylett described what ​​happened on the night on April 10. “Having attacked his wife, the defendant then took up a kitchen knife and cut off her head,” he said.

“Nor does the horror end there. Having decapitated his wife, the defendant began to break her head into pieces with a mallet and a metal bar. He then flushed the pieces down the lavatory.”